What we’re into: Thai iced coffee in Chinatown, and shopping

If you like to cook Thai food, you’ve probably beaten a well-worn path to LAX-C, the impressive Thai warehouse market located in an industrial quadrant of Chinatown, just north of downtown L.A., about equidistant from Phillipe the Original, Chego and the Men’s Central Jail. LAX-C looks and feels rather like an airport hangar, filled with a happily daunting network of shelves, packing crates and refrigerated cases, all loaded with ingredients and supplies that are often hard to find anywhere other than Thai Town — all in one convenient place.

After you finish shopping, or maybe before, head to Chimney Coffee for some caffeine, because you will likely need it. The little shop is around the corner from the entrance to LAX-C, between two Thai restaurants — where you can also stop for a meal if the one you’re making with all those LAX-C ingredients is still too far off. Chimney, opened by owner Amnaj Bholsangngam in 2011, is an unexpected oasis (free parking, wi-fi), a lofty space front-loaded with a snazzy red La Marzocco espresso machine, and they make a mean Bangkok iced coffee.

Your barista will orchestrate this drink from beans that are roasted in Chino Hills, then brewed via an 18-hour drip process, steeped in chicory and plenty of cardamom, and finally blended with evaporated condensed milk before being poured over ice into your cup. While you wait for this small act of magic, you can check out shelves filled with Hario pots and drippers, Kalita kettles and Pok Pok drinking vinegars (Pok Pok chef Andy Ricker, whose two L.A. restaurants are in Chinatown, famously shops at LAX-C). There’s a copy of Roy Choi’s cookbook on the wall, speaking of nearby chefs, below a large menu featuring brick toast and larb burgers.

The coffee is marvelous, very strong, deeply fragrant of cardamom, enriched and sweetened just enough with the condensed milk — a street drink recalibrated to fit the small-batch machinery. It’s cold enough to suit the recent spike in temperature and provides both spice and jolt. Because sometimes you need to be properly caffeinated when you shop for frozen curry leaves and Double Chicken hot sauce, don’t you?

1100 N Main St, Los Angeles, (323) 343-0030, www.chimneycoffee.com.

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